5. However, many people believed Spring Heeled Jack was of Supernatural Origin.
However, other people believed the original Spring Heeled Jack had never gone away- because he was no mere mortal. Right from the first moment, Jack had ‘sprung’ into the public eye, many of the general public believed he was a supernatural entity. The Morning Chronicle of 1838 described how the residents of Peckham believed they were being plagued not by a man but by ‘the pranks of the ghost, imp or devil”. In these accounts, Spring Heeled Jack took on the shape of a white bull or bear and would prey upon helpless women and children- or anyone who went out at night without a lantern or a stoat stick.
People credited Spring Heeled Jack with a supernatural origin because, despite advances in science and technology, many people in late Georgian and early Victorian England still had one foot in the superstitious past. In the early years of the nineteenth century, some even believed that malignant spirits roamed the streets of London. Not content with lurking in the shadows, these specters were thought to actively terrifying passers-by.
Some of the ghosts simply frightened their victims by stalking them through the fog and poorly lit streets as they walked alone by night. Others however actually attacked them. In 1826, a figure known as the Southampton ghost was reputed to have assaulted its victims. Described as being masked, wearing steel armor and able to jump over 10ft walls, the ‘ghost’ bore many of the characteristics later attributed to Spring Heeled Jack.